The hated tree

Today we said goodbye and good riddance to a gigantic, horrible tree that we have hated from the day we moved into this house two years ago.

Picture about 6 more branches this size all over the tree--it pretty much covered that whole large window. This was at the very end, when there was just one more large cut to go. Hallelujah!

 Not only did it shade a big portion of our backyard, making us unable to plant anything that needed sun to grow (yeah, most things), but also it was loaded with small, red leaves that dropped all over our yard and patio all year long. You can't even believe how annoying those leaves were. Sweeping them up was like doing laundry or cleaning a house with a toddler --the minute you finished sweeping them, there were more dropping on your head--wind or no wind, these leaves were falling off. I don't know how there were any left on that gigantic tree.

Proof of the constant mess on our neglected patio

It was a huge, overwhelming job, but Jeffrey was up for the challenge. He really did most of the work--I hauled away the branches and helped with the rope but he gets credit for all the cutting. We have officially cut down about 8 large trees in the last two houses we have lived. Hopefully this is the last for a long time. We hope to pull out all those ugly bushes, plant some grass and I want a few more garden boxes now that the sun can shine on this side of the yard.